Memorial Deportation Ciney

"Memorial
in honor of
of the deportees
of Ciney's claim
on December 9, 1916"

On December 9, 1916, almost a thousand men waited in the courtyard of the Château de la Haute.
321 of them, including 98 residents of Ciney, were assigned to forced labor in the German war industry. Five of them would never return to Ciney, while 7 others, zeakened by deprivation, died in the days or months after their repatriation.
The Château de la Haute itself was requisitioned to house the Lager-Kommandantur (camp commander's headquarters) during the First World War.

On April 2, 1923, a stele was erected on one of the pillars of the castle's entrance gate near the place where the selection of the deportees was made.

In May 1940, German soldiers smashed this stele, which reminded them of their fatal act.
A neighbor, who witnessed the incident, picked up the debris at nightfall and hid them in her basement.

On Saturday, September 9, 1944, the day after the liberation of Ciney by American troops, the residents of the district restored the precious remains of the stela in the pilaster of the castle's entrance gate.
A reproduction of the original stela is placed above the rest of the lion, which is why there are two.